The Savannah Sand Gnats played their home opener against the Charleston RiverDogs Thursday at Historic Grayson Stadium in front of 3,358fans.

Savannah used power (3 home runs) to defeat Charleston, 8-3.

The Sand Gnats scored three runs in the first inning. John Mora,cf was hit by a pitch leading off the inning and latter scored on a throwing error by the third baseman on a ground ball hit by Jon Leroux,dh. First baseman Stefan Sabol‘s home run over the left field fence scored Leroux.

Charleston scored their three runs in the second inning on 4 hits and 2 walks.

Savannah scored a run in the 2nd inning to take a 4-3 lead.

Leading off the 4th inning for Savannah, Pedro Perez hit his first home run of the year over the left field fence for a 5-3 lead.

The Sand Gnats added a run in the 6th inning and 2 runs in the 7th inning on a line drive home run over the left field fence by Wuilmer Becerra,rf (2) scoring Leroux who had walked.

Savannah had 9 hits for the game and leading hitters were Perez 2-for-4, Mora 2-for-4, and Becerra 2-for-4 with 2 RBI’s.

Savannah pitching: IP. Runs. Hits. K. BB

Corey Oswalt (W,1-0). 5. 3. 7. 5. 2

Carlos Valdez. 2. 0. 1. 3. 0

Cameron Griffin. 1. 0. 1. 3. 0

David Roseboom. 1. 0. 0. 1. 0

Game two of the series starts at 7:05pm Friday at Grayson Stadium.